"How did you get this?" I inquired hastily. The boy held onto the leather journal delicately as if he truly knew its precious value to me.
He set it down on the gap between us. I placed my hand on the cover and inhaled.
"I'm afraid I can't tell you where I got it."
The hand that I had placed on the diary slowly balled up into a fist. "Why can't you tell me anything?" I whispered.
"If it was much simpler I would tell you, but I would be risking a lot." His eyes glinted with what seemed like regret. From how I looked at him, he had things locked away in a secret vault of his mind.
There was a possibility that I could get the answer out of him. If I were to ask him enough irritating questions, then maybe he would accidentally spill.
So the question was, how did he get Lola's journal. To get to the how, I needed to find out the why. What was so important about the journal that he so desperately had to give to me. Was it so I felt more comfortable and at home here? That was all I could think about. Unless...
I picked up the journal and flipped through it. I haven't read every page, but I knew for a fact that every page I read I had thoroughly gone through, analyzing every word. Even if it sounded very tasking and unnecessary, it was something that I did.
When I had quickly flipped through every page, I opened up to one that I had never opened to. The last page. I never dared to read the last page of a story when I was still reading. It was just a stupid thing to do. Why spoil yourself and read the ending? It was just not worth it.
But this was different. And my hunch had been right. The final page had a short message. No date had been written but I only assumed it was recent. Possibly before she gave me her diary as a gift. What gave it away was how the message was addressed to me.
Damp spots appeared on the olden beige page of the diary. I smudged it with my thumb but could not get it off as more began to drop. My initial thought was that it had been sprinkling with rain, but the star of the planet was shining and no clouds had arrived.
I moved my hand to my face and gently wiped under my eyes where tears had fallen. That bitter feeling of nostalgia welled up in my stomach, pushing up to the surface to fall as tears. It wasn't fair. Everything was too vague. I tried to read the page again through blurred vision, but every time I would, the same few words repeated. "Revealed" and "who you are" spoke louder than anything else on the page.
I closed the diary and pulled my head tight to my knees as I hugged them. The journal rested sitting up straight on my lap.
What was I going to do? How was I supposed to take all of this? Was there so much of myself that I didn't know? Why? Why was it happening this way? Why now of all times? Why couldn't I know everything now?
My chest got heavier and heavier until I started choking on my heavy and hurried breaths. My head was against my knees but my vision was so blurred by the tears. Breathe slower. Breathe slower. It didn't go slower. The opposite was all that occurred. It was so heavy that-
Something rubbed against my hunched over back. It was a comforting stroke of a hand. My breaths started to slow down its pace and my chest got lighter.
I hated silence and isolation. I hated confrontation of confusing ideals. I often got so lost in the thought that I would never understand myself or the world which would lead to me forgetting how to use the proper words to express how I felt.
I clenched my fists harder against my knees and tried to keep my breaths steady. His hand was so gentle and I knew that he was afraid to say something offensive and hurtful.
"T-thank you," I muttered, trying to get a hold of breathing properly.
Only a few minutes passed before I was able to gather the courage to push my knees away from my face.
You cry too much. My inner voice was really harsh.
But it's okay to cry, I told myself.
It was the comfort of the boy's gentle strokes on my back that made me reassure myself that everything would be okay.
"Wow, I'm really sorry for breaking down like that." I forced a chuckle. "Must've been how my grandma writes her damn letters."
"I understand," he said. "I can't stay here any longer, but I have a few more things for you."
I noticed that his cloak was opened in the front, revealing his dark green leather tunic and brown trousers. He wore a brown belt with a pouch attached in which he took and pulled the string that held it closed. The pouch opened onto his hand as a white cloth with what looked like bits of tiny bread rolls with powdered sugar on top.
The more I looked at it, the more it reminded me of a Dunkin' Donuts munchkin. It reminded me of home.
The boy moved his hand closer to my face as if offering. "What is it?" I asked.
"They're called elven dough bits."
My eyes widened and my mouth watered. This was on the menu from the cafe earlier today that I never got to try.
I picked one up and plopped it in my mouth. The taste was immaculate; it was nothing like a Dunkin Donut's munchkin or bread rolls with powder. It was soft and creamy on the inside, and had such an indescribable taste.
Nothing could compare to this dish, and suddenly I felt as if my worries were gone. It was like my tongue danced on a fluffy cloud in the heavens.
"The thing about the dough is that it makes you feel somewhat happy," he stated.
I grinned through my puffy red cheeks. "Thank you, I really needed this."
"You can have the rest."
I took the cloth and began popping more dough bits into my mouth unregrettably, chewing on the pastry quite quickly.
"Food might not be the only thing to keep you cheered up," he stated, moving the palm of his hand toward my face.
A deep dark evergreen hue glowed on his palm, illuminating our faces that were only inches away. The light began to form into multiple transparent orbs that floated on his palm. The orbs morphed and created different shapes as the boy took his opposite hand and swirled it above them.
The orbs formed figures of what looked like a dragon, fairy, alicorn, and elf. They danced around his palm in a mystical manner. His fingers on the hand above moved along with the orbed figures as if they were puppets on an invisible string.
But they moved gracefully, unlike the stiffness of a puppet.
I, on the other hand, was completely mesmerized by this. Enchants, was it? It was just like the movies and it was honestly one of the most alluring things my own two eyes had witnessed.
And it was at that moment, my troubles vanished. My mind cleared as inspiration and ambition overtook the previous stress. I knew what I wanted while I was here. I wanted to be an enchantress. Take advantage of the situation I was in and bring back that adventurous lifestyle I had when the boy had left me in the forest before.
"That was incredible!" I bubbled like a child. I flashed a wide toothy grin as the orbed figures began to dance around some more.
The boy retracted his hands, and the figures slowly faded until they were finally gone.
"Do you think you can teach me?" I asked.
He grinned then suddenly bit the bottom of his lip. "I don't think I'm able. At least, not at this moment."
"Oh." If he couldn't teach me, then I would have to find an alternative way to learn.
"Although, I could give you this." He reached into his cloak one last time, pulling out a dark green covered book.
"Jeez, just how much crap can you fit in there?" I jokingly asked.
"I have pockets..." The boy muttered shyly.
I plopped one last dough bit in my mouth and exchanged the cloth with the book. The book was light despite being so thick of pages, and no title was forged on the cover. "What exactly is in this book?"
"You'll have to read it to find out," the boy answered. "I'm afraid I have to leave. But, perhaps we'll meet again."
"How will you know where I am?" I asked.
He tapped on the top of his cloak which was pinned together by a pale green jewel. It took me quite a bit to figure out, but I remembered the jewel that was on the dress he had given me yesterday.
"Is it a tracking device or something?"
The boy nodded in response as I blinked. And he was gone, leaving me with nothing more but two books and a new goal set in mind.
<>*<>
I was thankfully able to retrace my steps back to the clinic despite having an awful sense of direction. Even if Khaleesi treated me as if I was some hobo on the side of the road, I couldn't abandon her because I had nowhere else to go. Not to mention, the dress with the tracking jewel was still at her vacation home.
And when I found my way to the clinic, I spotted the ombre haired girl sitting on the bench I was previously on, anxiously tapping her foot. The grip of her hands on the bench seemed tight with apprehensive motives but loosened when she caught sight of me.
"There you are!" Khaleesi exclaimed with relief. "I can't believe you left when I said-" She stopped herself in the middle of the sentence. "I apologize." Khaleesi looked me in the eye.
I raised my right arm and gripped the two books on my other. "You don't need to say sorry. I understand. I'm just a stranger after all, you had every right to leave me."
"But, I didn't. A part of me trusts what you said about not knowing anything about this world. Plus, my reasoning for being so rude to you was unfair." Khaleesi stood up and brushed her skirt. "It's already the afternoon, so we should head back so I can teach you more about this place."
I hadn't noticed that a few hours had already swept by. But I silently agreed as I began to follow the girl back to her temporary home.
"By the way," she said, "where did you get those books?"
I glanced down at Lola's diary and the green book the boy had given me. "Um, the local bookstore," I quickly replied.
I didn't know if the boy wanted me to reveal that I had met up with him. He did say that the purpose of his cloak was so that people didn't notice him. And if he didn't give me his name after loads of unnecessary begging, I figured it was best not to tell.
"Well, okay..." Khaleesi's words trailed off as she examined the books in my arm. "What are they?"
"Oh, uh one is just an empty journal I'm using to document my journey here and the other is uh..." I opened the front page of the book and peeked at the title before reading it aloud. "The Origin of the Modern World of Cocoronous. Dang, that's a long title." And not very modern, if you ask me.
Khaleesi nodded. "That book should get us a head start, but I'm warning you: that is the most confusing and hectic history textbook I had ever read in school."
I shrugged disregarding what any of that could have meant. I would do whatever it took to figure out the message Lola had left. And if that meant learning a world's worth of foreign history, I was willing to do it. I did not want to be left struggling in the dark - especially if this planet was directly linked to my irrelevant ass.